Guardians of the Galaxy Update – Moving in to Epcot

“I am Groot!” That’s right Groot, we have a update on the Guardians of the Galaxy roller coaster. Well, actually more like multiple updates. Since we last spoke about the new coaster coming to Epcot in 2021 Walt Disney World has made a variety of announcements and revealed a few aspects of the attraction. Let’s take off and gather all the information out there in the galaxy and bring it home. Are you ready Groot? “I am Groot!” Alright, we think that means he is ready, we’re not fluent in Groot yet.

Poured Foundation of Guardians of the Galaxy

Building a Home

Every good home is built on a solid foundation. The Guardians of the Galaxy attraction is no different, as it took 960 trucks worth of, well concrete, to pour the foundation for the attraction. To give you a reference point, that is enough concrete to fill 3 Olympic size swimming pools! The foundation measures just shy of 72,000 sq feet. Now that’s a big home!

Recently, Bob Chapeak was at the IAAPA (International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions) conference in Orlando, where he spoke about the construction of the Guardians of the Galaxy building. The newly constructed building is large enough to fit not 1, not 2, or even 3, but 4 Spaceship Earth’sinside! We’ll let that marinate for a second. When completed this will be one of the largest attractions on Walt Disney World property.

New Building Facade

Curb Appeal

Whether we believe it or not, our first impression of any home is it’s curb appeal. With the Guardians of the Galaxy building being so large, many Disneyphiles have been concerned about the site lines (not being able to see aspects of attractions from different lands). Rightfully so, as it’s a massive building. For months there have been rumors around whether Disney would try to “hide” the building or make it “pop”. One of the rumors saw the theming of the building to be like Nova Corps Headquarters. Definitely would be impressive to see, but would take away from Spaceship Earth and creating bad site lines when you’re in the World Showcase.

In the DVC Duo house, we were hoping Disney would look to “hide” the building. Over the past few months the facade of the building has been erected and it appears that they have chosen the hidden route. As we can see in the image, they are going with a green on the bottom to blend with the trees then transition to sky blue. Similar to Loki, the building will blend in with its surroundings, but won’t fool us into not seeing it.

First Piece of Track

Interior Design

How a home is laid out is just as important, as how it looks. There is nothing worse than wasted space within a house. The Guardians of the Galaxy roller coaster looks to be taking full advantage of it’s space. We heard from Bob, yes that same Bob, that the roller coaster will be the longest indoor coaster in the world. Now that’s maximizing space!

Attractions Magazine Video of Ride Testing

What’s in the Garage?

Sneaking a peek into the Guardians of the Galaxy garage we see the new ride vehicles. These are not your run of the mill roller coaster vehicles, as they include a few pieces of new technology and style. The cars are designed in a 2×2 method with 4 people per car. The total number of cars per “train” is still unknown. An interesting aspect of the vehicles is the seating will be “stadium” style seating with the back row of each car a little higher than the front. Better vantage point for spying enemy ships?

What makes these cars stand apart though is the “spinning” technology. As we can see in the video above from Attractions Magazine, the car will be programmed to turn towards the action. This will not be like other spinning coasters, we’re looking at you Primeval Whirl, or as Serena calls it Primeval, well you can figure out the rest, this coaster will be a storytelling coaster facing guests towards the action.

Our best guess is that the turning of the cars is to simulate Peter Quill flying The Milano (the spacecraft, not the cookie). We could also see Rocket (aka trash panda) flying around with a jetpack fending off attackers. Maybe Nova Corp.

The Guardians of the Galaxy’s new home is coming together nicely. It won’t be long before they are ready to move in! What would you like to see in the new attraction?